I did not attend the rally in DC on Wednesday January 6th. I am sharing the experiences of 2 people I know who were there. One went into the Capitol Building the other not.
This is a piece from Cat McGuire who did Not enter the Capitol Building on January 6th.
This is the link to the Full article https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2021/01/08/i-was-at-the-washington-d-c-save-america-rally/
Contrary to Big Media’s Big Fat Lies, the Save America rally on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, was in my opinion an exhilarating, momentous, peaceful protest.
Spoiler alert: I did not make it inside the Capitol, but I was in the first 25% wave of people that arrived, and like 99.9% of those around me, I jubilantly participated in a peaceful “storming” of the Capitol.
I’ve been to marches large and small, but I don’t recall encountering such a polite, well-mannered crowd. Bill had been to a prior Trump rally and Jim had been to three (Johnstown, Trump’s hospital vigil, November 3).
They said every rally is the same: uncommonly good, nice people. I figured their love of Trump colored their characterization of the President’s base. But I discovered at the rally that it’s an actual thing: Trump supporters are by and large decent, down-to-earth, genuine people.
I saw many women at the rally, and tons of young people. Contrary to the drumbeat that Trump supporters are racist white supremacists, Bill and Jim told me that the rallies they attended were very diverse: Sikhs, African Americans, Cubans, Mexican, Vietnamese. The election numbers prove this out, with Trump gaining incredible traction with Black and Hispanic voters. From what I saw, this Save America rally was almost all White. I never did get a good answer why Trump’s diverse base did not get to D.C. for this rally.
I have to say I was truly surprised how incredibly informed almost everyone I met was. The conversations I had revealed big-picture thinkers as well as familiarity with granular details. Those I spoke with certainly defied the stereotypical depictions of dumb deplorables.
Trump finally came on at 12:00pm and in my opinion he spoke with gravitas. I appreciated that he came right out and told the crowd to remember all the Republicans who have ended up being turncoats, and the audience appropriately booed on cue. (Check out how Mitt Romney was heckled—uncued—on his flight to D.C.)
We left the Ellipse a little early to make it to the Capitol by 1:00pm when the certification proceedings were scheduled to commence. I assumed everyone would rally outside the Capitol. Some people were saying we should go in and demand the Senate do the right thing, but I didn’t hear anyone echo that idea.
People were angry and disgusted, saying they’ve had enough and they’re not taking it anymore. The stench of the Georgia election the day before was in the air. While the demonstrably stolen national elections were the coup de grace, the Biden Crime Family, China, the lockdowns, the riots and looting, and the totalitarian threat of a Democratic win all figured prominently in people’s minds and emotions, and I saw many protest signs that expressed those concerns.
Walking to the Capitol, we learned that Pence was going to throw Trump under the bus. The feelings of injustice were palpable. Appropriately, the crowd made a pit stop at the Department of Justice en route to the Capitol. The crowd was really wound up, roaring chants like “Do your work!,” “Shame on you!,” and “Crime scene!”
There were two officials standing in front of the DoJ, and they weren’t the slightest bit worried that this keyed-up crowd might start pelting them with rotten eggs or something. While I saw one protester employ an actual pitchfork to carry his protest sign, I did not see a single visible weapon the entire time. So much for White men and their guns. Yes, people were angry. Yes, people were venting. But I felt very safe with this crowd.
I was really taken aback by the conspicuous absence of a police presence. Every major march I’ve been to, the streets are fully lined with police, sometimes on horses. I remember being terrified once at a New York City protest when a cop on an enormous steed charged into us demonstrators.
Bill, Jim, and I got to the Capitol about 1:30pm before much of the crowd had arrived and saw protesters running up the steps. We were surprised to see so many going up the steps because we assumed there was a police barrier.
We smelled tear gas and heard flash-bang grenades going off in the distance, but very soon the disturbance fizzled and the unruffled crowd paid no more attention to the possibility of violence—especially since no reinforcements came at all until we left the event at 4:00pm. It was at that time—finally—that police cars began converging on the site as we were walking away.
For some, entering the Capitol was very easy. I talked to a young Asian man who couldn’t believe how easy it was to enter the building. A White guy told me he went in and out several times. Apparently, there were various entrances.
There was a tremendous sense of excitement. Dozens of people, even hundreds, could have easily “stormed” the Capitol, but chose not to. In fact, a relatively extremely small number entered the building. In my opinion, most did not go in because there was so much camaraderie and patriotic zeal taking place outside. Crowds were singing the Star Spangled Banner, and of course chanting “USA! USA!” The energy was electric, 100% positive, and we were determined to make sure our presence was known to the lawmakers inside who we assumed were deliberating on the certification.
For a crowd this size and in light of the crimes that had been done against our country, the heightened energy flowing amongst us could have been combustible. But we protesters had about as much malevolence as an energized Superbowl crowd.
Let’s be clear, the so-called Capitol riot was trifling compared to the violent rioting and looting in U.S. cities by Black Lives Matter and Antifa mobs. These events were shamelessly excused by the media, and many celebrities as well as Kamala Harris paid for the bail of those arrested.
Of the 24 photos USA Today posted of “Damage inside the US Capitol,” the most damning consisted of debris, litter, and dust. Compare the property damage of January 6th to last summer when “mostly peaceful protesters” reduced vast swaths of Washington, D.C. to flames.
Biden and Black Lives Matter are now calling the Capitol police racist for treating the violent “Capitol breachers” (Antifa) with kid gloves. If the powers that be actually thought Trump supporters were dangerous extreme-right radicals with guns looking for trouble, wouldn’t the State have been armed to the teeth to protect the Capitol? I didn’t see any National Guard. I didn’t see any D.C. police.
About 3:00pm, with most everyone from the Ellipse now at the Capitol, we were on the lawn right next to a line of about 25 police officers who walked through the dense crowd in riot gear. They didn’t treat us as if we were “domestic terrorists,” and in turn we treated them respectfully.
Around 4:00pm, everyone began to get an emergency text message from D.C. Mayor Bowser saying a curfew would be in effect from 6:00pm that night until 6:00am the next day. Everyone dutifully began to leave.
Later when I was able to read the media’s reporting, I was dumbfounded to see something I had experienced as so peaceful, positive, and inspiring be described as violent, negative, and destructive. Black is white. War is peace. The stolen narrative of the Save America rally is my personal 1984 moment.
Photos by Robert Eric who was part of a "Second Wave" of people who entered the Capitol. He told me the Capitol was open for people to roam free for 2 hours before police in riot gear came in and made people leave.
For me, since I lived, studied, was criminalized since the early 70s for essentially being Healthy and having healthy responses to abuse and neglect in the "home" and community, I studied Health, Psych, dysfunctional/abusive relationships ALL my life, it's CLEAR to me we're living in One Mass Abusive "family" and the vulnerable are reaching the END of their rope. Which, in my humble opinion is WAY overdue. The public has been tolerating their rights being violated like it's normal and the shrinking of their health for at least 5 decades all while Enabling those in "power" to become more and more brazen. Anyone who's studied even basic psych understands how dysfunctional relationships function. Health was neglected for too long.
I tired since the 70s to get people to put health fist more, to at least take small steps in the direction of not just physical but, emotional/relationship health. I know that reading this hear it may sound strange but, when one's health is under imminent threat people just may be sorry they didn't value health on higher levels more.